A plethora of numbers traces a decade of change

WASHINGTON — Numbers are one way to measure where you've been and where you're going. In the first decade of the 21st century, numbers show that the U.S. has grown in population but that its per household earnings, adjusted for inflation, have declined. The trade deficit has increased with China, but declined with Europe. The number of Republican public officials has dropped and so has the average approval rating of the presidents. Exxon Mobil has replaced Microsoft as the most valuable U.S. company. The number of college students has dropped, and cell phone use has skyrocketed.

Here are other statistics that trace the changes that took place in the last 10 years. Constant dollar calculations were made with the Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator, found at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl.

THE UNITED STATES

Population279,295,000 (1999); 308,150,087 (2009)

Hispanic percentage11.7 (1999); 15.1 (2007)

Black percentage13 (1999); 12.3 percent (2008)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

U.S. POLITICS

Registered voters183 million (1998); 189 million (2008)

Republican governors31 (1999); 22 (2009)

Democratic governors17 (1999); 28 (2009)

Republican state legislators3,442 (1999); 3,234 (2009)

Democratic state legislators3,882 (1999); 4,073 (2009)

Female members of U.S. House of Representatives60 (1999); 78 (2009)

Female members of the U.S. Senate9 (1999); 17 (2009)

Openly gay U.S. members of Congress3 (1999); 3 (2009)

Millionaires in the Senate30 (1999); 67 (2009)

Millionaires in the House66 (1999); 170 (2009)

Lobbyists registered with Congress13,233 (1999); 13,426 (2009)

Members of Congress with Twitter accounts0 (1999; Twitter was created in 2006); 210 (2009)

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